From what we’re hearing from the US bike trade, it seems that 29ers are now making up a fair amount of the high end hardtail market, at least in the Eastern and Central bits. The west coast seems undecided at the moment. It’s not surprising then, that Yeti has decided to enter the fray.

We caught a glimpse of this bike in a stand at the Fox launch. No doubt it’ll be introduced to us today in the pits, but here’s an early sneak preview.

Called the Big Top, perhaps a reference to clown bikes, perhaps not, it’s a Yeti hardtail like we’ve never seen before. Big, tapered headtube, big main triangle and a carbon fibre back end.

And it’s not just a regular, Taiwanese, glue-in back end that replaces the seatstays. It’s a whole Yeti-shaped rear triangle, complete with curving dropouts.